Insurance broker – 110 users – hosted desktops

When we were first approached by this client, they were experiencing some pain as a result of their recent growth. Their Finance Director – who had been doing his best to look after their IT – now realised that he needed to outsource it to professionals to make sure it was done properly and to enable him to focus on his official responsibilities.

Ambitious growth plans

When we discussed the client’s concerns and needs, they revealed ambitious growth plans which would take them from the current count of thirteen staff to around fifty within twelve months, and further in subsequent years. They were also worried that the lack of consistency in terms of applications installed on their PCs (and the way in which they had been configured) would cause problems as they grew, in terms of staff training and the ability for staff to hot-desk. Finally, they wanted to deploy an IT infrastructure that wouldn’t cost them a fortune up front, but which could nevertheless scale with them as they grew.

Cloud hosted desktop solution

We recommended our private cloud hosted desktop solution, accessed via thin-client terminals instead of PCs in their office. The benefits of this approach include desktop and application consistency across the organisation; per-user based pricing that rises in line with growth; no capital outlay; fewer local hardware issues and reduced risk from viruses; the ability to roll out additional terminals for new users simply by plugging them in and letting them configure themselves (a process which takes just over two minutes from start to finish); and the ability to roll out new applications instantly, across all desktops, in a matter of minutes. In addition, all inbound and outbound email is duplicated to an external archive in order to comply with relevant legislation, and all of their telephone calls are recorded too.

Ultra-fast, consistent and reliable

Over the years we have expanded on the basic service by adding in features such as encrypted email (when requested by their larger customers) but the private cloud hosted desktop solution ticked every box and gives them ultra-fast, consistent, secure and reliable access to their applications.

From our base in Farnham, Surrey, we at the Network Support Company have been providing IT Support Services, proactive network monitoring, hardware and software supply and installation and general IT consultancy for over fifteen years to clients throughout the U.K.